UPDATED: A Final Salute for Chief O'Connell: "We Love You to the Moon and Back"

As the pallbearers pushed the casket of Tinley Park Police Chief Mike O'Connell out through the doors of the church O'Connell helped found, scores of police officers – their badge numbers covered by mourning black – were waiting at attention to snap a final salute.

The officers' uniforms bore names local like Tinley Park, Orland Hills, Orland Park and the like, but they also came from Berwyn, Willowbrook, Burbank, Lake County, Will County, Elk Grove Village, Homewood, the Illinois State Police, Merrionette Park and of course Riverdale, where O'Connell started his law enforcement career in 1972. They came from throughout the state to pay tribute to this man of the law.

Click here for our photo gallery of the funeral procession and police salute to O'Connell.

"You probably wouldn't have liked all the attention, but it's what you deserve," daughter Michelle Anichini had earlier told the crowd of mourners at her father's funeral. "We love you to the moon and back."

Tinley Park's police chief since 1995, Mike O'Connell, . He was 60. His funeral was held Monday at , where Father Jay Finno recalled O'Connell and his son setting out a sign 11 years earlier that a church would soon take shape on what was then a field of hay.

As the Bagpipes and Drums of the Emerald Society played a mournful dirge, Tinley Park said goodbye to a friend and, for some, family.

A FATHER AND TEACHER

During the funeral, O'Connell's three children – Anichini, Colleen O'Connell and Michael O'Connell Jr. – read from a letter they had composed to their late father.

Colleen O'Connell said it would be hard to capture her father in a few words but, "we'll do our best, just like you always taught us."

Son Michael O'Connell Jr. also recalled his father as a teacher, one with a great love for the outdoors.

"Your favorite time of day was sitting outside at daybreak listening to the world come alive," he said.

Orland Park Police Chief Tim McCarthy also spoke to the crowd, which included police officers, village staff, the village board and mayor. McCarthy and O'Connell knew each other 20 years and often worked together through the South Suburban Association Chiefs of Police.

"I knew he grew up on the South Side, the south suburbs by the values and character he had," McCarthy told the crowd.

A VILLAGE MOURNS

O'Connell, formerly the police chief of Riverdale, moved to Tinley Park after being hired as chief in 1995. Tables were filled with his various awards and commendations, including his 2005 Illinois State Crime Commission/Police Athletic League of Illinois "Police Chief of the Year" award.

When his casket was brought into the church, it had a Tinley Park village flag draped over it. It was the same flag a visibly distraught Mayor Ed Zabrocki would later present to O'Connell's wife of 38 years, Barb.

McCarthy closed his remarks by reading The Police Officer's Prayer to St. Michael, a prayer to the aptly named patron saint of police officers. It ends with these words:

"And when we lay down our night sticks, enroll us in your heavenly force, where we will be as proud to guard the throne of God as we have been to guard the city of all the people. Amen."

Updated at 4:06 p.m. with link to photo gallery